Page 4-The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, September 14, 1989
M-T
LMihE Halaclia
By
RABBI MOSES J, BURAK
QUESTION: How should the Tochecha be read, and.who gets this aliyah, whkh comes only two weeks before Rosh Hashana?
ANSWER: In the minJiag ofLithuaimn Jevys, the ha al Kordi (Torah reader) takes the Tochecha as his portion of the Law. Amongst the Sepharadim, It belongs to the rabbi. In many other congregations, it is read without a benedictipn before the. reading or. after the reading.
The reading of these frightening imprecations seemed to be' a problem, even in the days of the Talmud.' In Tractate Megillah, 31 bi we are told that Levi Rabbi Burak bar Buti.read it and was me-gam-gaim, which means that he stammered as he read it. Rashi explains the term this way: Levi read it in a great rush.-with difficulty.
In the Code. O^H. Chapter 428:6. the Rema states that one didn't call a perison to this aliyah m the normal Way. A person wasn't called by name to come forth and take this portion. It was''ya'am-mod. mi she-yirtse, let arise whoever wants (this fKirtion)." This points to some tenderness in fac-^ mg the reading of the imprecations.
In some communities, a poor man was paid a fee to take this aliyah. Some limes the poor fellow was not even in the synagogue when his portion was about to be read. A search party ' w^ sent to find him, and meanwhile the Torah had to wait for him to arrive.
Some responsa record that the man they were seeking was found in the tavern, and taken from that place to the .synagogue to be called to the Torah tor that portion which so many were afraid to have as theirs. - .
On one occasion, an heroic action tool place when the poor man was being sought, A certain . Baron Eybeschutz z.l. was in the synagogue: He arose, took his place by the Torah, and made this statement: "I have sinned in allowing the Torah to wait. Who is more suitable to have the Tochecha read to him than I, who have sinned so much before God." Then he spoke the benediction in a loud - voice. ■ - — - .....
Because of all these problems, another pattern developed around the reading of the Tochecha. The great Rav of Lemberg, in his responsa, Sho'el u-Maishiv, volume 5, respon-sum 9, ruled that it is permitted to read this frightening passage without Haying anyone recite the blessing over it as his portion.
That's the way it is done in my congregation, Beth Jacob V'Anshe Drildz. An occasional visitor may be surprised by this procedure. But, when I find iffthe resporisa, Vayitzbair Yosef (reprinted m 1988) in responsum 10, that this way has the approval of the Machaneh Chaim, O.H. volume 3, no, 16, and theipproval of the Gaon and Tzad-dik Rabbi Naftali z.l. of Ropshutz, I ani safisfied.
Why are so many people afraid to have this as their aliyah? Well, The Chassam Sofer, in his glosses on the Code, views the Torah portion assigned to a man, as something of a prophecy .Then, why should any man want to have 98 imprecations read to him, and view, that as the bright future awaiting hiin? The ordinary layman had a right to be afraid of this portion.
Some men of learning were equally afraid of this Torah reading; This writer, while serving in the United States,.saw a ba'alkorai who refused to rbad the Tochecha as his portion, for all that he was a shochet (ritual slaughterer) and rriari of learning. The vice-president of the shul pressed him to read
The ba'al korai replied: "As a graduate of Auschwitz 1 was cursed enough. You want them; you can have them." Then.he-stepped down from the bimah. The VP was unafraid and read it.
Let the old year fade away with its curses, and sorrows, and let there come in its place a Year of Blessing and of Healing.
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...But early release on parole denied
receive
NEW YORK (JTA) -
Anne Henderson Pollard has been granted a furloiigh from prison over the Jewish High Holy Days and a transfer to a halfway house in late November, pending the approval of her warden at the Danbury Federal Prison Camp in Connecticut.
Pollard, the wife of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard, was told of the recommendation for the furlough and halfway house last week.
On the same day, she was denied early release on parole by Daniel Lopez, the Northeast regional parole commissioner.
The parole denial came
Anne Pollard
in spite of more than 200 telegrams and letters sent to Lopez's office by Henderson Pollard's supporters, asking that he reverse the
recomniiendation of a parole board, which ruled Aug. 22 that she should not be granted early release.
Lopez's decision means that she will mo.st likely not : be finally released on parole until March 1990, three years after she began serving her five-year sentence.
Pollard was convicted for possession of classified documents in connection with her husband's espionage activities. He is serving a life sentence for spying for Israel.
Anne Pollard's family plans to submit an appeal of the parole decisioti to the national appeals board of
Jonathan Jay Pollard
the U.S. Parole Commission.
Pollard's father, Bernard Henderson, said his daughter plans to celebrate the
TEL AVIV (JTA) -
Israel's first pancreas transplant has been performed at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, and the recipient — a diabetic since childhood — was reported to be in good condition.
The operation on Arii-ram Zili. a 43-year-old civilian employee of the Israel Defence Force in Ash-dod, was performed last week, It was not announced for two days, when doctors reported that the patient's "blood, sugar
level had dropped to the normal range of a hon-diabetic.
The father of two young children, Zili received not only the pancreas but also a kidney of an unnamed deceased donor. Doctors have found that the operation is more successful when both organs are transplanted together.
Only a few dozen pancreas transplants have been f>erformed throughout the world. -
The nine-hour operation was performed by a team of eight surgeons and four anesthesiologists.
In Jerusalem, Shaul Miz-rachi, Israel's seventh heart transplant patient, was reported doing well after an operation that was recorded by an Israel Television camera crew.
;-Mizrahi, a 33-year-old resident of Or Yehuda, underwent seven hours of surgery at Hadassah .Jlniversity Hospital.
"His heart was donated by the family of a 15-year-old boy who had died shortly before in a traffic accident,
The transplant was the third performed at Hadassah's Ein Kerem facility and the first to be filmed for television.
It was done at the request of the Health Ministry, which is conducting a program to increase public awareness of the importance of donating organs to save lives.
Rabbis issue halachic ruling:
JERUSALEM (JPFS) -
The right of the Jews to conquer Eretz Yisrael and hold on to it takes priority over avoiding bloodshed, the National Religious Party CounciLof Rabbis says in a halachic ruling issued recently. . The council maintains that the recent statement of Rabbis Eliezer Schach and Ovadia Yosef in favor of returning territories were tantamount to saying that the very establishment of Is-
rael, was a violation of the Torah. The council says Schach was repeating the halachic arguments forbid-dirig the establishment of the Jewish state, made by the Satmar Rebbe and other rabbis, but "rejected by most rabbinical authorities."
The overwhelming majority of rabbis in Israel, including Torah sages and yeshivaheads of the previT ous generations, the ruling continues, opposed
Schach's yiew and decided that according to the halacha it was imperative to establish the Jewish state and safeguard it.
"The command to settle Eretz Yisrael includes, according to Nahmanides, coining to live here, building settlements, establishing a sovereign Jewish state, having a Jewish government, conquering the land, holding on it and not giving it to others," the council's halachic rill-
ing says.
The council notes that if in the War of Independence, when thousands of the members of the coun-try's.small Jewish community were killed, the halacha was not against waging war, it is all the more obvious now — when there is no such danger — that there are no grounds for withdrawal. '-Quite the opposite: everyone knows that in withdrawal itself there may be danger of bloodshed:"
High Holy Days in New York at the Riverdale synagogue of Rabbi' A,vraham Weiss. Weiss has visited both Pollards m"prison. ~
Henderson said he re-. fused to be prematurely optimistic about the news of his daughter's impending furlough or the November transfer to the halfway house.
"She has only been told orally so far;," Henderson said. "We're trying to pin (the prison authorities) down and get it in writing."
Prison spokesman Craig Apker said the final decision has not yet been made, and that the warden has yet to p:'c on the decision.
Henderson said that he firmly believes his daughter should be released to a halfway house immediately. She was granted community custody status last month, which made her eligible for. release to a halfway house month ago.
He said he fears for her life if she rerriains incarcerated even until November; ..-..Bollard is suffering from a raregastro-intestinaldis-ease known as biliary dyskinesia. Her-family said her weight is down to 82 pounds, and contends that she is not receiving adequate treatment in prison.
A decision to allow Pollard a release on furlough and to a halfway house would be a reversal of the prison authoritieis.^arjier . stance that the^ywou let-not— grant Pollard the privileges because of her medical condition.
Ronald Sen, Pollard's case manager, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency last week that because Pollard is taking medication which cannot be brought off prison grounds, she would not be permitted either furloughs or release to a halfway-house.
Carol Pollard, her sister-in-law, said she was certain public pressure played a role in the prison authorities' decision to reverse their position.
Support groups for Anne and Jonathan Pollard in the United States and Israel have complained that the couple has been treated with undue harshness.
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